The Wanderers
Chapter 84 – Trial of War
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, the Hyuuga would have been explored more.
***Previously-On***
The final battle has begun.
Having split from the rest of the strike force, Sasuke, Itachi, Fiore and Gaara squared off against the Quiraji Black Robe leader, Kyoukou. At the very start of the battle, Kyoukou brought out two Sunagakure shinobi that he consumed instantly, enraging the Kazekage and almost baiting Gaara into an attack that would have ended his life. Only by his occupant's reminding him of previous lessons did Gaara regain himself. He created a huge dust storm with his sand to cover their part of the battlefield and the other three fighters began charging towards their enemy through the storm. Kyoukou fired off spiritual energy attacks one after the other, but even after injuring Fiore he didn't achieve anything from his attacks. After dispelling the dust storm, Kyoukou fought against the combatants expertly, eventually driving Sasuke to his knees and consumed over a decade and a half of his life before Itachi got between them and took the blow for him. Itachi died with a smile on his lips and his demise gave the others the opening they needed to take out the Quiraji leader. As Kyoukou died, the main Quiraji leader turned his attention towards his killers, recognising that another of his children had been taken out.
***End Summary***
With three of the enemy leader facing them at the same time, the strike force had been forced to split up to fight against their respective foes. While their comrades took care of Shouri and Kyoukou, five of the shinobi had moved to face off against the warmonger Sensou. Only Mei had fought with the Red Warrior leader personally, but Neji had more than enough reasons to hate him and fight him with everything he had. The two Kages were a formidable force apart, but in combination with Hinata and Lee's support they would present a serious challenge to the Quiraji leader.
However, they weren't the only ones standing against Sensou. The pair of Kumogakure Tailed Beast containers had also joined their ranks, not wanting to be left out in the battle. Killer Bee made a comment that they would be better served by taking out Shikyo while she was vulnerable, but Yugito reminded him of the warning that Naruto had given them, as it had been repeated by their own occupants.
They had to focus their attentions on the opponent in front of them. He was all that mattered at this stage.
Sensou placed his hands on the hilts of his swords and scanned the faces of the six shinobi standing opposite him. A part of him was proud of the fact that out of the three of them he had the most powerful shinobi and the largest number dedicating themselves to fighting him, but that only mattered when he won and they all lay dead at his feet.
Not that he had much intention of doing much fighting on his own. That wasn't how he operated.
"We have to be careful of his control technique," warned Neji quickly, before any of them charged forward. "A single touch and you'll be fighting for him rather than with us."
"Does that extend to us?" asked Yugito Nii, indicating to her fellow Kumogakure shinobi. "I doubt he has the power to control a Tailed Beast."
"He ain't got the stones to take control of our bones," rapped Killer Bee in a dramatic pose. Despite having accustomed herself to his rap, Yugito was still forced to plant her hand in her face at his terrible rhyme.
Rock Lee flexed his bandaged hands slowly as he accumulated physical energy in his legs, "We currently outnumber him. If we all attack at once, we might be able to take him out before he is able to use his ability."
"That's too risky," said Hinata with her hands in a handseal. "We're better off attacking from range and gauging his physical abilities before moving in for the final strike."
"She's right," said Neji with a confident nod of his head. "Unlike the previous Sensou, he doesn't have the metal manipulation or any ranged techniques as far as we know. If we don't lose our cool, we should be able to win without casualties."
The Mizukage had to admit she was impressed with the cool calculation under the heat of the moment of the two Hyuugas. "That's a good plan. The Hyuuga girl and I will attack from afar while you guys close the distance and work out his abilities." She turned her head towards Hinata with an apologetic smile, "Am I correct in my assumption about your skills?"
If she were younger, Hinata was sure that the attention paid to her by the older woman would have intimidated her greatly and she would have struggled to respond. But years of dealing with the harsh realities of the world had steeled her resolve significantly and she created a swirling whirlwind of water directly in front of her while simultaneously adding wind blades into the mixture in response.
"A woman after my own heart," said Mei as she responded with her own water technique, creating a massive dragon of water out of the stone ground and directing it towards their enemy. As it roared towards him, Hinata sent her whirlwind of water at him as well from above to come crashing down on top of him.
Sensou glanced up at the water attacks through his piercing red eyes before taking a slow breath and moving back a single step. He placed his hands on the hilt of one of his swords and aimed himself at the ninjutsu abilities flying towards him. The Mizukage's technique would dissipate once it came into his chakra-nullifying field, but it would still drench him in water and he had no interest in fighting in soaking armour. The Hyuuga's technique was the concerning factor though, as his senses told him that the chakra-based water hid a large number of spiritual energy blades that would actually be able to strike him and potentially harm him.
Sensou found himself fascinated by her ability to use spiritual energy in a similar manner to his older brother, Kyoukou. It was nothing to worry about ultimately, but a curious development nonetheless.
Once they came within a few dozen metres he drew his sword, made a slash into the air and sheathed it at his side again in a single fluid motion. The exertion of physical energy through the blade was enough to slice apart both the Mizukage's water dragon and Hinata's whirlwind, though that was only because it had been so perfectly aimed at their centres.
He heard a crackle of sound at his side that drew his attention as he completed his iai technique. At his side, a large number of lightning bolts were flying towards him much faster than he could possibly dodge, but they dissipated without touching him once they entered his chakra-nullifying field. Behind the electrical blue lights was the tall dark-skinned man that had produced the terrible rhyme beforehand. He didn't seem deterred by the fact that his lightning techniques were completely ineffective as he continued to hurl lightning at him through dramatic punching motions.
It looked ridiculous to Sensou, since the lightning kept dissipating at his field. He was half tempted to make his way over to the Tailed Beast container and show him how a Red Warrior fought, but he resisted the urge as he saw more interested prey coming towards him.
The Otokage had been smart enough to keep his distance and was observing his movements carefully. He didn't doubt that the young man would be able to find some pattern to his techniques and would be able to exploit it at some point, but Sensou had no intention of giving him the opportunity to discover it.
He watched carefully as the last two shinobi of the group charged forward at such a high speed they were barely blurs at the sides of his vision. Rock Lee was only moving at about half of his maximum speed, while the Two-Tails container had covered herself in her occupant's chakra to dramatically increase her speed so that she was at a similar speed to her green-clad companion. They moved from side to side before easily jumping over the Red Warrior leader and charged towards him in his blind spots. Lee's fists were steeled with physical energy while Yugito's hands clenched her gauntlets as her chakra movements slowed down slightly but nowhere near enough to stop her momentum.
It was a well-coordinated attack to strike at a seemingly vulnerable position. Neither of them expected him to be able to dodge their attacks, but when Sensou disappeared completely from the battlefield they were left standing where he had been with confused looks on their faces.
Neji watched his disappearance with a deep frown on his face. He'd seen it before when the leaders had fled unfavourable battlefields. But this wasn't that situation at all.
"He'll be coming back," warned Hinata at his side as she began collecting water around her once again.
Her cousin nodded in agreement and went to shout a warning to their companions, but he saw it was already too late as the air split apart behind the two of them and a pair of bare hands stretched out towards their bare necks.
Rock Lee's battle-hardened instincts warned him of the danger and he dodged to the side just in time, but Yugito's similar movement pushed her in the wrong direction. Sensou's fingers barely brushed against the side of her cheek beneath a strand of her blonde. The touch caused her to freeze up on the spot, giving the Quiraji leader enough time to re-emerge into their area and stand behind her with a knowing smirk on his face. He reached forward and took her in a lover's embrace before any of them could stop him.
They each wanted to charge forward to see if they could stop him before she fell under his control, but even Killer Bee had the sense to pull back and hold in his emotions momentarily as Sensou stepped back from the blonde kunoichi to examine her.
"What do we do now?" asked Hinata as she cancelled her water technique and conserved her chakra.
"I've seen this before," said Mei quietly. "There is only one way to stop her."
The four of them each looked over at Killer Bee, who had dropped his hands and was watching Yugito's movements carefully through his sunglasses. Inside him the Eight-Tails was raging in fury, but it had yet to process in his mind. Yugito and he had had a complex relationship over the years they'd worked together, but to see her submit to the enemy without so much as a fight made it seem all the less real to him.
But that was only until the Two-Tails container turned around and looked straight at him. She was still the same Yugito in appearance for the most part, but her eyes had taken on a red sheen that told him that nothing of her remained within. She remained silent as her puppet master let out a low laugh and took several steps back while gesturing for her to go forth and destroy them.
Her focus did not deviate from her Kumogakure compatriot. Yugito's legs initially moved forward one step at a time like she was robotic, but it wasn't long before she regained her shinobi movements and shot forward at the speed she showed earlier.
Killer Bee immediately understood the situation. She wasn't the type of person to let up or be merciful in battle, and now that he was the target of her fury he could see what would happen if the two of them were to fight while surrounded by their companions. There was only one thing he could do.
The Eight-Tails container turned around and began running towards one of the edges of the Konoha crater, knowing that if there was anything resembling Yugito in the woman chasing him, she would follow him and try to take him down first.
"She's going after Bee!" said an alarmed Hinata as she moved to intercept her, but she was pulled back by the Otokage with a shake of his head.
"We'll take care of him," said the Mizukage at their side, answering her unasked question. The red-haired leader motioned to Rock Lee and pointed to where the Eight-Tails had run to. "The two of you keep him occupied until we get back."
Neji let go of his cousin and turned to Lee with a serious expression on his face, "You'll have to kill her, you know that, right?"
Lee gave no indication that he had that intention, but he acknowledged the advice nonetheless and ran off after the two Kumogakure shinobi with the Mizukage at their side.
In a few moments the pair of Hyuugas were left alone on their section of the battlefield, with Sensou standing a reasonable distance away with a smug look on his face.
"Leave them be, Hinata. If we all go to face her then we'll be doing exactly what he wants."
The Hyuuga kunoichi stared at her cousin for a moment before conceding the wisdom of what he was saying and turning her white eyes back to their main opponent. While he was controlling Yugito, there was little danger of them being taken under his wing, meaning at that moment he was more vulnerable than before.
Now was the time to strike.
oOoOoOo
Killer Bee had chosen a battlefield to confront his fellow Tailed Beast container and two of his companions had sworn to help him.
That left the pair of Hyuuga shinobi to fight against the Quiraji leader. Sensou had hoped that taking control of a powerful Tailed Beast like Yugito Nii would occupy all of his opponents, but both Neji and Hinata were close combat specialists and were better served trying to kill the Quiraji leader.
"It's been a long time since we've fought side-by-side," said Neji as he stepped forward towards the waiting Red Warrior leader.
Hinata smiled softly as she moved a strand of dark blue hair out of her face and took up a Hyuuga taijutsu stance. "We've both changed quite a lot since then, Neji-niisan."
"I told you not to call me that," said the Otokage back at her, but he knew he was wasting his breath. Unlike his cousin, Neji didn't have mastery of physical and spiritual energy separately. However, he was a Kage, and that lent him to a significant amount of power beyond just being a taijutsu master in his own right.
Neither of them activated their Byakugan, as it was pointless while the enemy had a chakra-nullifying field around him. They moved together without losing a step towards their enemy, who seemed annoyed at their presence near him as opposed to the epic battle that was happening nearby. In response, he drew the pair of silver swords from his side and started to weave them in front of his body with a fluid grace that spoke volumes to his opponents on how skilful he was with his blades.
He wasn't just going to let his puppet do all the fighting. Sensou was the Quiraji aspect of war after all.
Hinata reached him first, her hands flaring with spiritual energy as she moved to strike at his chest. She assumed that he was faster than he let on and was proven correct as his silver swords came up to defend himself, striking at her hands. His accuracy was scary as they threatened to cut straight through her hands, but Hinata's arms were covered in a swirling wind energy that bent his blades away from her skin at the last second.
Sensou's motions didn't slow down as he continued to try and power his way through her defences, but he could only keep this up for a moment before the Otokage approached him from the side. With a single arm without a weapon, Sensou didn't think that the male Hyuuga shinobi would be much of a challenge, but he couldn't even see his arm as he fought in perfect synchronisation with his cousin. With his analytical gaze, Sensou could have sworn they were twins as their strikes were almost simultaneous and were progressively getting faster as they struck. His swords were being mainly used to parry and block attacks; he was amazed at the fact that they were so good at attacking that they were avoiding the edges of his blades.
Sensou snarled as he was being pushed back by their attacks, pumping his arms with physical energy and trying his best to press forward. He focused his aggression on the weaker of the two in his eyes, temporarily focusing his swords into a single thrust towards the Otokage's chest. He timed it perfectly for Neji's back-step with his strike, knowing that the shinobi's defences would require chakra that wasn't at his disposal in such close range.
To his surprise, the Otokage shifted his weight and took the strike in his side. The silver blades easily bit through his robes and tore through his skin, but Neji ignored the wound and reached forward with a strange object in his hand.
"You forgot…I'm the Otokage."
With that, he clamped a black device onto the side of the Quiraji leader's head, directly over his ear. It dug into his skin with a stinging sensation, but that wasn't even the beginning of the attack. A blast of concentrated sound thundered into his ear, giving his eardrum a single moment of continued existence before it exploded within his head. The speakers of the device continued to vibrate at the side of his head before the Quiraji leader reached up and tore it off with a cry of pain that he'd never produced before. The rupturing of his eardrum had caused him to bleed pretty significantly in his head and he had to dedicate spiritual energy to try and stop the bleeding, but his opponents weren't going to let him take the time to do so.
The Hyuuga kunoichi shot forward and drove a hand into his chest with a serious amount of spiritual energy in her strike. It wasn't successful in injuring him, but the force was enough to bend his armour inwards and send him flying back before she turned her attention temporarily to healing her cousin's wound.
"What are you doing?" asked Neji as his wound had forced him to take a knee. He hadn't realised the attack to his side had seriously messed up his liver, but he was glad that he'd been able to strike a significant blow on their enemy.
"I don't need a Byakugan to see how hurt you are. I'm not going to let you die so that we can win this fight." Hinata saw resistance in her cousin's eyes and shouted it down with a determined look of her own while her hands glowed a healing blue on his side. It didn't take long to stop the more serious damage from causing any further harm, but she knew they didn't have time to fully heal him before their enemy recovered and moved to attack them again. She wasn't arrogant enough to believe that she could defeat Sensou on her own; knowing that her cousin had been preparing for this fight for a significant amount of time and likely had more devices in his arsenal.
She finished healing the more grievous aspects of his wound and helped him to his feet before turning her white eyes to their opponent. Though Sensou stared at them with pure hatred and fury in his red eyes, she couldn't help feeling that he was distracted by something.
The other battle between their companions raged on behind them with a combination of deafening sounds and shockwaves, but that wasn't what she was observing in their enemy.
Perhaps it was difficult to control someone like a Tailed Beast container and fight with them at the same time. If that was the case, then this was probably their best chance to take him down, before someone won the other battle. Like everyone else there, she knew there was no cure for the Quiraji's control over Yugito, but removing the controller from the equation certainly wouldn't hurt.
With a wordless agreement on battle strategy between them, the Hyuuga shinobi charged forward to engage their enemy once again.
oOoOoOo
Killer Bee had tried to draw Yugito away from the Quiraji leader in the hopes that it would weaken his hold on her and give the Two-Tails container a chance to throw off his control. He knew that there was no way he'd be able to outrun her and had been relying on his occupant to move his body out of the way of her attacks as he fled.
Even with the Eight-Tails' assistance, her claws cut at his back and shoulders without prejudice, drawing enough blood to force the Kumogakure shinobi to slow down and keep to the confines of the crater that had once been Konoha. He'd hoped to get further out in case he needed to change form, but clearly that wasn't going to be the case as he turned around to see Yugito's furious face bearing down on him.
Bee wasn't an emotional person; part of being in control of his Tailed Beast was maintaining an aura of calm and not taking life too seriously. But seeing the woman that he'd come to respect and admire look at him with such disgust and hatred in her eyes was enough to break his shield of emotion.
He was pissed off. He refused to believe that there was no way to save her even as she pulled back a claw in an attempt to cut his throat.
But before he could defend himself, the Two-Tails container was smashed out of the way by a flying kick in her side by the green-clad shinobi that had moved with them. The force of his kick was enough to send her away a significant distance, and even though she was now their enemy he resented the young shinobi immensely in that moment and had to resist the urge to reach out and attack him on general principle.
Coming up behind Rock Lee was the Mizukage who spat a globule of lava straight at the Two-Tails container, forcing Yugito to jump backwards to avoid the burning shot as it struck the ground beneath her feet. Mei came up to Killer Bee's side with one hand at her mouth ready to fire another shot, "Give us the rundown on what we need to watch out for."
Straightening himself out, Bee answered her straight, without any rhythm or rhyme to his words. There was a time and place for that and now wasn't it. "She's fast and experienced. If we let her set the pace, we'll never catch her."
"I believe I can keep up with her," said the ex-Konoha shinobi in front of them confidently. He reached down to his leg warmers and tapped them with chakra-covered hands, reducing the weight to a more reasonable amount before stepping back into his stance. "Anything specific to be careful of?"
The Eight-Tails container went to respond, but his eyes were drawn to their opponent as Yugito had dropped to the ground on all-fours and chakra was exploding out of her at an exponential rate. The hair tie holding back her blonde hair ripped apart as the air around her began to blow upwards like a typhoon.
"You should worry about that," said Killer Bee dryly as a blue flame enveloped her body and she began to grow in size. Her body merged with the flames as black script moved along and took the form of a huge cat-like monster.
The Mizukage blasted out a ball of lava from her mouth that struck the monstrous form of Yugito as it grew, but the orange and red liquid was simply absorbed by the blue flames. Mei brought down her hands and frowned at the result of her attack, "That's disappointing."
Stepping backwards to avoid the residual flames from the Tailed Beast container, Rock Lee had to admit he was impressed. "That's…going to make things difficult. I'm not big on hitting things that are on fire."
Despite the severity of the situation, Mei couldn't resist the urge to wink at the green-clad shinobi, "I'll keep you covered, dear." She didn't even need to weave handseals as a whirlpool of water appeared at her feet. It was only a paltry amount of chakra to create, though she doubted that it was going to be as easy as dousing the flames with water techniques.
Yugito finished her transformation and slammed her fiery blue cat paws into the ground with a deafening roar. Her Tailed Beast form was one of the smallest among the chakra beasts, but it still towered over everything else on the battlefield. Its one yellow eye and green eye scanned the battlefield quickly before refocusing on the three shinobi that dared oppose it.
From his seated position at the back of the various battlefields, Benkei watched the transformation unfold with fascination. He had faced the Two-Tails in combat before and almost killed it with his bare hands, but now it fought under his child's command. The irony was rather delicious and he would enjoy watching her kill her comrades. Or they would kill her. It didn't really matter to him.
The Two-Tails let out a thundering roar as a challenge to her opponents and began bounding forward to fight them. The Mizukage collected a vast amount of water around her body before sending it as a crashing wave into the path of the marauding monster, but the water evaporated the moment it struck her blue-flamed form and barely slowed her down as Yugito seemed hell bent on charging at her old companion first.
Rock Lee decided to take a risk and leapt high into the sky to slam his foot into one of her exposed eyes, but the Two-Tails' speed was much higher than he had anticipated such a large creature to have and brought up a fiery claw to bat him away. Lee's agility in the air allowed him to anticipate the blow and avoid the worst of the damage, but he was still sent flying off into the distance.
The Two-Tails reached her target within moments and pounced on the area that her dark-skinned companion was standing in. In her monster-form she easily dwarfed the large man and her claws looked like they would crush him with almost no resistance given.
Killer Bee looked up at the roaring beast and bit at his lip momentarily. He'd only fought with Yugito in this form a handful of times, but he knew every technique available to her and how powerful she was as a Tailed Beast.
There was only one thing to do.
As her claws came down on him, Killer Bee swapped places with his occupant and allowed the Eight-Tails to do his part. In an instant the shinobi Killer Bee was no longer standing on the battlefield, but instead he became the ox-octopus beast that he'd worked with for so many decades. While the Two-Tails had dwarfed the shinobi, the Eight-Tails towered over the fiery monster and caught her claws in his own muscular hands.
The blue flames burnt through the skin on his Tailed Beast form, but the Eight-Tails' responded with a deafening roar and moved his head closer to the Two-Tails'. He gathered a massive amount of chakra in front of his mouth and prepared to fire a Beast Bomb straight into her face. It wouldn't be enough to kill the Two-Tails, but it would definitely put her on notice.
He never got to fire the bomb as the Two-Tails brought up her back claws in a backward flip and kicked at the arms holding her. The clash of force was enough to send a shockwave over their area of the battlefield, battering away both the Mizukage and a returned Lee away from the battling beasts, but it also caused the Eight-Tails to temporarily let go of her claws in a roar of pain.
The Two-Tails bounded away from the larger creature and dived around behind it with a triumphant roar. Bee's Tailed Beast turned around as its various tails slammed into the ground in an attempt to ignore the burning pain in his hands. It was furious at the smaller monster's ability to get away from his grip, but that had always been how Yugito had fought.
Retreat and then return at a stronger position.
The Eight-Tails was a ponderous beast and struggled to keep up with the high speed of its smaller compatriot as the Two-Tails continued to circle around him. His two shinobi companions moved into positions around the sides of the battlefield, waiting for an opportunity to strike. Mei knew that she would be able to break through the fiery form of their enemy with the right concentration of water, but that would require time to work out and too much chakra than she was willing to waste on an enemy that wasn't a Quiraji. Lee, on the other hand, suspected that he might be able to do some damage by opening the gates, but that would leave him vulnerable afterwards and unable to fight properly against their real enemies.
They would try to assist as much as they could, but for the moment they were only observers to the battle.
As the Two-Tails moved around his sides in a stalking pattern, it unleashed a torrent of flames from its mouth, engulfing the Eight-Tails in a cloud of blue flames. The larger Tailed Beast did its best to beat away the flames by waving its tails around to create wind vacuums, but it still burnt terribly. It tried to reach out and grab the quicker creature with its hands, but Yugito's monstrous body was too agile to be caught by such lumbering hands.
For all its movement and fire breathing, the Two-Tails wasn't able to do any serious harm to the Eight-Tails, but that wasn't going to stop it from trying. Under the directive of its master, it suddenly changed its movement vector and charged straight towards the ox-octopus. The divergence in strategy threw the Eight-Tails for a loop and left him vulnerable as the Two-Tails jumped into his defences and bit down with its fiery teeth into its neck. The blue flames surrounding it burnt into the Eight-Tails body and lit the entire beast on fire, but it was quickly being extinguished by large waves of water from the nearby Mizukage.
While the Eight-Tails roared out in pain and tried to pull off the smaller beast with its hands, disregarded the burning of its body, Rock Lee jumped over one of its octopus tails and leapt next to its head to pull back a fist. He aimed the physical energy ability straight into the centre of the Two-Tails head and punched the air with such force that it temporarily pulled out the monster's teeth out of its prey's neck.
The moment of relief was enough for the Eight-Tails to take advantage of as its hands wrapped around the Two-Tails body and squeezed as hard as he could to ensure that it wasn't going to get away. It pumped chakra throughout its body to try and stop the pain as it leaned forward and smashed its head into its target's face.
The Two-Tails let out a roar of pain and tried to writhe out of its grip, but the Eight-Tails wasn't going to let it go this time. It tried to fire a small Beast Bomb straight into its ox-head, but the Eight-Tails slammed its head down into it again and caused the blast to strike at the ground beneath them instead. The shockwave from the blast blew away the Mizukage from her standing position and she slammed her side into a nearby rock formation that had been carved up from the monsters' battle, while Rock Lee maintained an aerial position with his physical energy technique of kicking at the air. He waited to see if there was another opportunity to assist in the battle, but it became clear that he was no longer needed.
"You have to do it, Bee," said the Eight-Tails as it held its fellow beast in its hands. "It's not her anymore."
There was no response from his jailer except for a roar of fury and anguish. He hesitated for a moment before twisting his hands outwards and pulling them down as hard as he could. Even a Tailed Beast as strong as the Two-Tails couldn't hold up against its stronger counterpart and after a few seconds there was a sickening crunch that was followed by a soft whimper as the blue flames began to dissipate along the Tailed Beast's body. It began to shrink back down to size in the Eight-Tails hands, falling back down until it retook the Kumogakure kunoichi form that it had started as.
Killer Bee slowly fell down towards the ground as he forced his own Tailed Beast back into its jail cell and returned to his regular form. Once he was standing back on the ground in his own feet he looked down at the broken shinobi in his arms, remarking on how light Yugito had gotten since he'd last carried her anywhere.
Her eyes were shut and she looked almost peaceful from the face up. He hated that he'd been forced to harm her so, but it had become clear early on that there was no other way to stop her. He wasn't about to weep over her demise; he respected Yugito as a fellow shinobi and Tailed Beast container but that was the extent of their relationship.
But he was furious at what he'd been forced to do and had every intention of turning his wrath to those that had been the ones to truly kill her.
He was going to give her the last rites though. It was the least she deserved.
oOoOoOo
As the Two-Tails container died on the opposite side of their section of the battlefield, the pair of Hyuugas were ignorant of her fate as they continued to push Sensou back with their taijutsu. For all their skill after their initial attacks, they'd barely been able to strike him more than a few times and there was no evidence that they'd done any damage to him beyond his damaged hearing from the Otokage's strange device. The main problem was because they were so cautious to avoid making physical contact with his skin with their own that neither of them had been able to take advantage of their full techniques. They weren't entirely confident that he wasn't able to control more than one person at once and he wasn't about to dissuade their hesitation.
Sensou had also been struggling against his opponents, but for very different reasons. It took a degree of concentration to control a being of such power such as Yugito Nii, but now that burden had been relieved.
But the Hyuugas did not know that. He had a twisted plan in mind, but it would require a sacrifice on his part.
The Otokage ducked underneath a sword strike at his head and snaked his hand through to try and remove a piece of his armour, knowing that his chakra-based taijutsu had no chance of actually piercing through his defences. However, as it had been before he was unable to complete his offensive as Sensou's other sword swept along his front and barely missed taking off his other arm to complete the task that his predecessor had started.
Seeing her cousin fall back momentarily gave Hinata an opportunity for attack as she moved into the Quiraji leader's side and struck out with a blade of spiritual energy at her fingertips. She had seen him dodge such attack vectors with almost no effort and was already preparing herself to attack him during his dodge.
But unlike before, Sensou made no motion to dodge her strike. He pressed forward and took a hard blow to his side from her spiritual energy, but it wasn't enough to kill him.
It was enough to get him close enough to embrace the Hyuuga kunoichi though. All he required was a single touch.
Neji had prepared himself for many things to happen in this final battle. He knew that people were going to die and that he would likely share their fate. He knew that there was a chance he would have to make the sacrifice to ensure the survival of his family and his village, something he would do in a heartbeat.
He never thought he'd have to witness his cousin's demise.
Hinata's body went rigid for a moment before she balanced herself on the ground and slowly turned to face her former ally. Her normally gentle and calm expression had been replaced with one of cruel malice and unspeakable hatred aimed directly at the other survivor of their clan.
Neji's blood ran cold at the realisation of what had happened. Sensou had taken a step back from his new thrall and seemed more interested in watching them fight each other rather than team up to finish off the Otokage.
His cousin's eyes activated into their Byakugan state as her puppet master stepped out of range, the full white colour spoiled by blood red veins that went from her temples into her irises. They looked like they'd invaded into her mind, which Neji took to seeing as Sensou's claws getting into her mind.
With despair at the forefront of his emotions, the Otokage brought up his hand and activated his own doujutsu to see the explosion of chakra within his new opponent.
The sheer amount she was able to mould was staggering, it was even more than he would have thought possible in someone that wasn't a Tailed Beast container. He observed that it was likely due to constant training with Naruto, but that wasn't the truly frightening thing about her. Hinata had always had a very fine control over her strength and had always used the minimal amount of chakra to achieve the greatest results with the least amount of serious injury.
That would not be the case here. Under Sensou's control, she would come at him with the intent to kill and would do everything in her considerable power to achieve that goal.
If he didn't come at her with the same energy, Neji knew he would not last more than a few minutes. The past battle with Sensou with her at his side had proven as much.
There was no cure for the Quiraji leader's control over her. They had tried to break it in the past, but nothing had any effect on those that he enthralled. Either she would kill him, or he would be forced to kill her.
That was their enemy's power. He'd been doing it since he awoke during Naruto's raid into the Land of Fire.
If he survived this coming fight, Neji swore he would mount the smirking Red Warrior's head on a spike.
But for now, he had to deal with his cousin, who was already charging towards him at great speed. Her Byakugan had been activated and seemed to be infected by the blood red colour of their enemy's armour, though for a moment he could have sworn that he saw a glimmer of the real Hinata in those red and white eyes. But that didn't last long as the cold hatred of the Quiraji re-emerged and he couldn't see her as his family anymore.
Without saying a word, Hinata's hands became a blur as she charged into him. It was a basic Jyuuken attack vector that anyone with a working knowledge of taijutsu would have been able to defend against. But Hinata's energy was overpowering and Neji's senses were slow to react as she closed the distance between them and started to attack him.
He brought his single arm to defend himself as he realised that she wasn't just attacking his chakra points like a normal Jyuuken fighter would.
She was aiming for his vital points with spiritual energy at her fingertips. She was aiming to kill him.
oOoOoOo
Watching his puppet fight against the leader of the shinobi force was absolutely priceless for Sensou. A part of him wished he had a cold drink and a chair to sit down in, but this was the heat of battle and such luxuries were for other times.
It did bother him how much effort it took to maintain his control over the dark haired woman though. While controlling the Tailed Beast container earlier had been a case of overwhelming her personality with his own and turning her into a silent thrall slaved to his will. It had required a significant amount of power, but once he'd broken through it was simple to control her through the Tailed Beast within her.
The Hyuuga woman on the other hand, was a mixture of strong personality and will. Dominating her initially had been easy, as nobody expects what his technique does to them. But keeping her under his control was an exercise of frustration, as the Hyuuga's inner personality constantly battling against him and threatening to take back control of her body.
If he had time she would have been a fascinating shinobi to examine and enthral like they had done with Iceheart, but for now she made an excellent puppet to fight against the Otokage.
It was the other shinobi that were recovering from their monster battle that now drew his attention. The big one that had done most of the fighting appeared to be both injured and exhausted; he wouldn't present that much of a threat at this stage of the fight. If he had the chance to recover he could be difficult to manage, but hopefully by that stage his puppet will have killed her target and would be able to attack her other companions as well.
If he could get her to attack her husband, that would be perfect.
The other two shinobi, the woman and the ridiculous-looking young man, had already recovered from their battle with their monster companion and had seen that he was no longer under attack from their companions. He relished the look on despair on the younger shinobi's face as he saw his puppet attacking the Hyuuga clan head with such killer intent in her eyes.
But his amusement only lasted for a few moments before the two of them began moving towards him. They knew they couldn't get in the middle of the melee being fought between the clansmen and it had been impossible to hide the injury he had taken during the process of converting Hinata to his control. With the amount of spiritual energy she had pumped into him, Sensou was finding it difficult to walk in the same manner as he had before and his injured side had affected his arms as well too.
He measured the distance between himself and the approaching shinobi and brought over his two swords in preparation to receive them. He'd hold them back until his puppet was finished, then he'd unleash her on them. That should give him enough time to fix the wound in his side and re-join the battle.
Sensou didn't even see Lee's attack until the balled fist slammed into his face. The ex-Konoha shinobi had crossed the distance in the blink of an eye and attacked the Quiraji leader with such force that he almost injured his fist with his own attack. Sensou had covered himself with physical energy in preparation for their approach and took little damage from the actual attack.
But the force was enough to put him on his back foot and loosen his grip on his swords as he fell back. In a spinning motion, Lee kicked at one of his swords and sent it flying away before driving his foot into the side of Sensou's head with as much force as he could. The pain of connecting with a solid defence wasn't enough to warrant concern for the taijutsu master at that stage, but he knew it would accumulate if he didn't end the battle quickly.
The Quiraji leader swore loudly at the strike and swung his sword blindly at him, striking only at air as Lee flipped backwards and slowly took up his regular taijutsu stance. Sensou glanced around for his sword for only a moment before realising that he hadn't seen the woman's approach since Lee attacked him. He turned back to see the red-haired woman appear in front of him with a monstrous arm attached to her shoulder, one that looked like it belonged to a monster rather than a middle-aged woman. It appeared to be made of chakra, but that wasn't going to stop her from trying as a huge explosion of water appeared at the back of her monstrous arm to give it enough force to pierce through his chakra-nullifying field.
The monstrous arm disappeared as its chakra failed, but in its place she held the sword she had picked up from the ground and shoved it into the gap in his armour that had been opened up by Hinata with her attack. Sensou roared in pain and swiped at her with his other sword, taking off a snip of her hair as the Mizukage fell back like her companion.
"He's a tough bastard," she commented as they watched him wrench the sword out of his side and disintegrated it into metal chunks that fell to the ground. The arm connected to the side she'd attacked hung uselessly from Sensou's body, while he held up his sword and stared at them with pure hatred in his eyes.
"His previous incarnation was stronger," said Lee, wiping off a few beads of sweat from his brow. "I'm worried about Neji though."
"He's a Kage, he can handle his cousin," said the Mizukage as she placed her hands together into a handseal.
Rock Lee wasn't so sure about that as the pair of Hyuugas battled nearby. He'd fought with Neji as much as anyone and knew most of his newer abilities as well. There was a good reason why the Hyuuga clan head was on the level of one of the most powerful shinobi in their society.
He could also see why Neji wasn't fighting the way he normally would. It had been difficult enough to see Killer Bee fighting against his companion, Yugito.
And they didn't have the history that Neji and Hinata did.
oOoOoOo
When he'd tried to kill Hinata during the Chuunin Exams in Suna, Neji had only required two minutes of taijutsu fighting before he had her on her back and was pulling back his hand to deliver the death strike. That had been after he had knocked away the foolish blonde shinobi trying to protect her that had eventually become her husband and he knew that if it hadn't been for Lee's intervention their history would have ended in that single moment of hatred.
These two minutes of fighting was entirely different. Neji had come prepared to fight the Quiraji and had armed himself appropriately. That included a number of devices similar to the one he had used earlier and a few last resorts that he was saving for the inevitable conflict with Benkei. He hadn't come prepared to fight a fellow shinobi and certainly not someone like his cousin.
He'd always been her superior when it came to the Hyuuga taijutsu Jyuuken style and even their years apart hadn't changed that factor. The penalty of only having one arm would have moved it to a more even conflict, but that was only if they were using their Byakugan and their family techniques.
But as they fought in close quarter combat at a speed that would have surprised any spectator, his opponent's chakra spiked sporadically as she used elemental ninjutsu against him.
Every time he parried a Jyuuken strike it was followed up with a wind slash by her other hand that always barely missed removing his head from his shoulders. There was no hesitation in her offensive abilities; she'd even summoned a huge wall of water at one point in an attempt to drown him. He'd been able to avoid the wall altogether, but had a reasonably deep cut in his shoulder as punishment for his movement as she hurled wind blades one after the other at a distance.
Under Sensou's control, Hinata was neither conserving her chakra nor was she truly defending herself against his attacks. Neji hated the fact that he was instinctively holding back, as he didn't want to harm his cousin any more than he wanted to harm his own wife, but after these first two minutes of fighting he knew that if he kept fighting like that she was going to kill him.
"I'm sorry Hinata…" His white eyes momentarily shifted to where her husband was fighting and felt a heavy burden fall on his chest. Naruto would never forgive him.
He wouldn't forgive himself either.
With his heart steeled for the reality that was in front of him, Neji took a long breath and closed his fist. He wasn't going to fight like she was family anymore.
Hinata leapt over a nearby crashed rock formation in a reckless charge towards him, but was blasted back by a vacuum wave attack from her cousin. Neji leapt after her and slammed a pair of fingers into her neck. His Jyuuken attack missed her chakra points by barely a millimetre, but Neji's attack was only intended to demonstrate to himself that he had the resolve to fight her seriously.
Hinata took several steps back before pulling back her hands and forming a large pair of chakra lions at each end. She swept her hands down at his body, but Neji was too fast for those attacks to strike. It was only on the back-step that he realised that her taijutsu attacks were only a diversion.
Through his Byakugan he noticed a pair of her Kage Bunshin coming at him from the sides. Even though they were clones, they had enough spiritual energy to cut him in half as they attacked, while the original Hinata charged forward again with her lion fists, intent on attacking him at the same time.
Her timing was perfect, there was no way he would be able to avoid the attack by dodging.
With an explosion of chakra from his chakra points, Neji spun like a top and parried the attacks in a single motion. "Kaiten!"
The two clones immediately dispersed upon contact with the large blue chakra field, while the Hyuuga kunoichi had the chance to avoid it by jumping backwards.
She did no such thing. Hinata tried to power her way through his defence. Even with her spiritual energy strength, Hinata had no chance of getting through his Kaiten. She took a significant amount of damage before Neji cancelled his defensive technique and concentrated his Byakugan to see how much damage had been done.
Even with her injured limbs and bones, Hinata continued to press towards him with a scary persistence. Her hands spun through handseals before activating her ninjutsu and firing off a torrent of water bolts straight at him.
Neji wasn't about to waste chakra on another Kaiten, but with his Byakugan he could see only one path through the bolts without having to use chakra to defend himself.
Forward.
With his single hand in a handseal, Neji gathered chakra in his larynx and let out a piercing cry in the form of a sound wave straight at her. As the Otokage he had the knowledge and ability of every technique that was used by his shinobi, giving him a wide range of techniques at his disposal. The sound wave struck Hinata front on and caused her to drop to her knees as a wave of nausea overcame her. It was a disabling ability that left the enemy vulnerable to a killing blow.
Neji was in range within moments, but when he pulled back his hand to strike at her heart, he hesitated. She might be under the control of their mortal enemies; she might be looking at him with eyes full of hatred. But she was his cousin, a fellow survivor of Konoha and the only family he had beyond his wife and children.
He couldn't do it. He couldn't kill her.
That moment of hesitation cost him dearly as Hinata recovered from his sound attack and pushed forward into his defences in an instant. He tried to defend himself with a chakra-covered arm, but it wasn't nearly enough.
Hinata's hands battered away his single arm and pushed into close quarters before she blasted him down to the ground with a wind-based Hyuuga palm technique. The Otokage's back slammed into the ground and before he could recover back onto his feet, his cousin leapt onto his chest and drove a kunai straight into his hand to pin it to the ground.
Neji bit back a cry of pain and tried to kick her off, but Hinata didn't budge as her hands were a blur along the front of his chest, closing dozens of chakra points in an instant. As he saw his death in her lifeless white eyes, Neji remarked at how strange it felt to suffer the effects of his own techniques. It was like having no control over his own muscles, as if he was a prisoner in his own body.
There was nothing he could do as one of Hinata's hands began to glow blue and move towards his neck. His eyes widened as he saw what she was going to do, but there was nothing he could do to stop her.
The Hyuuga heiress began cutting.
oOoOoOo
Despite their battle with the Two-Tails and her container, both Rock Lee and the Mizukage still had plenty of strength to challenge the Quiraji leader in a close quarter fight. Lee's incredible speed and strength was easily pushing back the Red Warrior leader, while Mei observed their enemy's movements and calculated a strategy of attack in combination with him. Killer Bee was still recovering from the final part of his battle with Yugito and knew he couldn't assist them until he recovered from his wounds, as they all knew that another Tailed Beast container under Sensou's control would spell the end for them. Mei kept her distance to prevent that from happening with her; though from the looks of things they were out of time to save the Otokage from his younger clansman.
"You can never defeat me," taunted Sensou as he levelled his sword in front of him. The green-clad shinobi was lightning-quick and practically a ghost when he moved in to attack him, but Sensou would never admit that he was on the back-foot.
A rare confident smirk came across Lee's face as a thick mist emerged from the Mizukage around the pair of them. "That's what every genius says, until someone like me defeats them." Mei's mist penetrated through the Quiraji leader's chakra-nullifying field and obscured his vision, making it seem like his two shinobi opponents vanished into thin air.
If he were fighting normally Sensou would have been able to blow the mist away with spiritual energy, but it was taking far too much of his concentration to control the Hyuuga kunoichi that he wasn't able to fully commit to the battle at hand.
For several seconds there was no response from his shinobi opponents. Sensou wondered if that was because they were afraid of his counter-attack, but soon it became clear that that wasn't the case at all.
They were hunting him.
He felt the explosion of physical energy long before the blow struck him, but even the forewarning gave him no chance for defence. Rock Lee shot forward with the speed of a meteor, spinning in the air to deliver a punishing kick to the Quiraji leader's chest. The blow was enough to send him flying, but Lee was already behind him and levelled a kick in the centre of his back, sending him up into the air.
Sensou felt his bones creak within his armour at the strikes, but he was given no respite as he saw his green-clad foe appear above him as he soared through the mist into the sky.
His skin had a red hue to it and in combination with his outfit there appeared to be a green glow surrounding the ex-Konoha shinobi. Sensou wondered what that could be for just a moment before Lee's hand and foot slammed down into his head and rocketed him back down to the ground.
Even with his physical energy defences up, Sensou was just another victim to physics as his body shattered within his armour once he struck the ground.
Rock Lee landed beside the deceased Quiraji leader as the mist slowly cleared and took a moment to make sure he was dead by driving his foot into his skull. It felt overly brutal, but Lee wasn't about to take any chances with their enemy.
The second life departed the Quiraji leader's body, the control he had exerted on Hinata was broken and she was once again the master of her own master. The Hyuuga kunoichi snapped back to consciousness and looked down to see what she was doing. Her hands were drenched in blood and had been glowing the blue colour that denoted the use of medical ninjutsu, but the real horror that she saw was that her victim had been none other than her cousin, Neji. In the few minutes she'd been attacking him; she had disabled most of his chakra points, disabled his remaining arm and gotten three-quarters of the way through slicing open his throat with a chakra scalpel.
She didn't need her Byakugan to see the life slowly draining from Neji's white eyes, but the others had saved her just in time to prevent her completing the job. Without wasting a heartbeat, she brought over her other hand and began using medical ninjutsu once again. However, instead of cutting his throat, she was now concentrating on healing it back together.
"I'm so sorry, Neji-niisan. It…it wasn't me…I couldn't stop myself."
She continued to apologise as she tried to heal him, watching as life began to emerge back into the Otokage's expression.
When his first child had been taken down, Benkei had paid no attention to her demise. Shouri had a tendency to die once every few decades and it brought out little emotion in the Quiraji leader. He noticed the blonde shinobi that had played a part in her death appear behind him with some type of shinobi-bade, hoping to catch him off-guard.
The lightning blade fell towards the back of his neck, a killing blow. It struck against his skin and refused to penetrate further. Naruto held the strike for only a moment before leaping backwards at the obvious danger of holding such a close position to the Quiraji leader. Benkei hadn't even moved a muscle in defence of his attack, but Naruto recognised physical energy-based defences when he saw them.
He landed back where Kiba and Kakashi were recovering, turning to see how the other battles had faired. The giant dust storm in the middle of the battlefield had long since subsided and the three of them watched as the combination attack took down the second Quiraji leader. Naruto wasn't sure, but he could have sworn Sasuke's face had aged in a weird way, but he was sure that was just his imagination. At the other edge, he saw the survivors of the last battle picking themselves up and turning their attention to the Quiraji leader. Naruto felt a flood of relief when he saw Hinata walking with the rest of them, her hands healing a wound on her cousin's throat. He tried to wave at her to get her attention, but she seemed too preoccupied to notice him at that moment.
With his three children dead, Benkei took a slow breath and got up from his chair. His fourth subordinate continued to struggle against his control, but so long as she was alive he didn't mind that so much.
He watched as the shinobi survivors moved together into a single group, recuperating from their battles and turning their attention to him. They were wary of Shikyo's silent presence at his side, but most of their attention was placed upon him.
"It would appear that you are now ready to face your fate," he said in a low booming voice. "Were my children not enough to satisfy your appetites?"
"You knew they would lose," said Kakashi with a harsh look in his circular eyes. He resented the fact that Benkei had clearly thrown the three Quiraji leaders at them with the understanding that they would lose. They'd reaped a significant toll on the shinobi forces, as he noticed Itachi's absence at his brother's side and it had been difficult to miss the monster battle that had marked the end of the Two-Tails container.
Benkei made a sweeping motion with his hands, "Thinning the herd. I wanted to end your kind's existence with my own two hands, rather than at the hands of my people."
"We aren't the last of the shinobi," came Gaara's voice as his hands hovered over his sand gourds threateningly. "My village still stands, as does Kumogakure and Kirigakure."
The black voids that sat in the Quiraji leader's eye sockets turned to the young red-haired leader and were matched by a knowing smirk. "Are they? I wouldn't be so sure about that."
Gaara wanted to immediately reaffirm his village defiance of the Quiraji leader's attempts to destroy his home, but something about the confidence in Benkei's face caused him to hesitate. Despite this, the Mizukage wasn't about to not say anything about her own village's stand against the Quiraji.
"You can't kill us all, butcher. So long as one shinobi breathes, we will fight you."
Benkei's smirk grew at her assertion, "I believe you. However, besides the paltry defence at the shinobi temple nearby and the scattered forces that took down our field, you are all that is left of your race. Today is the day I cut the head off the beast and close the history books on your miserable existence."
"What the hell is he talking about?" asked a confused Kiba to his allies. "Why does it sound like he's already won?"
"That's just bad guy posturing," replied Naruto quickly. "He's trying to scare us off."
"I don't think that's it," came his wife's voice as they joined their allies in front of the Quiraji leader. She placed a hand on Naruto's arm to answer his silent question about her condition before turning her white gaze to her old teammate. "There is no lie or falsehood in his expression."
"What the hell has he done?" said a furious Killer Bee, still wearing his cracked sunglasses on his face. He could hear the Eight-Tails raging inside his head at the fact that they'd been forced to kill their ally and friend, only matched by Bee's own rage and grief at the circumstances. "The Raikage will come and crush him if we fail."
"We should send the injured back to the Fire Temple," said Mei quietly. She could see that several of their group were barely standing due to chakra overuse; she herself had several cracked ribs and suspected she was bleeding internally as well.
"It's too late for that," said Neji as he tested his newly-healed throat. His voice had a hoarse tone to it that he didn't recognise, but now wasn't the time to bemoan his own injuries. "No-one is leaving unless we have his head."
"Well said, young shinobi," said Benkei with an emotionless chuckle. "I will enjoy tearing you apart, piece-by-piece."
"Tell us what you meant when you said we were the last shinobi?" asked Kakashi, trying to get the Quiraji leader to keep talking so they could recover more from their battles.
Benkei wasn't about to fall to such a simple trick, but he also didn't want to keep it to himself. The beauty and ingenuity had to be shared. He wanted to see the despair in their eyes before he laid into them with his own hands.
"What did you think those objects in the sky were when you approached us?"
With that, he told them the fate of the shinobi.
Author's Note:
I was really close to killing Neji in this chapter. Unfortunately this is a case of me liking a character too much to kill him, and working him into the rest of the story so I could continue writing him. It's not as if he's had an easy road; he's had his arm chopped off and his throat slit, but he's a tough bastard in this story. A few spikes through the chest wouldn't kill him here.
The Tailed Beast battle was going to be longer, but this chapter started to get really long anyway and I had to keep to a reasonable length. It's mainly the consequences of that battle that really mattered anyway.
Please review and tell me what you think. I try to take each review into account, and believe me I read them all. Tell me what can be improved, what you liked, what you didn't, everything. I'm a writer so I'm always open to criticism.